Vassallo Murder, 9 people under investigation for the death of the mayor of Pollica, killed in September 2010.
Article Key Points
Angelo Vassallo was allegedly killed to prevent him from reporting a drug trafficking ring that he had learned about and which was taking place in the port of Acciaroli, a hamlet in the municipality of Pollica and a renowned tourist resort in Cilento.
This is the hypothesis underlying the investigations of the Salerno District Anti-Mafia Directorate which culminated today with the execution of a search warrant against 9 people investigated in various capacities for the crimes of murder and criminal association aimed at drug trafficking.
Vassallo Murder, Among the Investigated Also the Colonel of the Carabinieri Fabio Cagnazzo with Lazzaro Cioffi of the Caivano Green Park
The Colonel of the Carabinieri, Fabio Cagnazzo, at the time of the events on duty at Castello di Cisterna and on vacation in Acciaroli, is among the 9 investigated. This morning his home in Frosinone was searched. Cagnazzo had already been investigated in the past, but then his case was archived as requested by the same Salerno prosecutors.
The officer had acquired video from surveillance cameras in the Cilento port a few hours after the crime, a circumstance that the officer has always justified with the need to safeguard the images, but which at this stage is considered as an element against him.
Cagnazzo himself was among the first to arrive at the crime scene. The former carabiniere is also under investigation Lazzaro Cioffi, recently convicted in the first instance for his relations with the drug traffickers of the Parco Verde of Caivano, whose name had already leaked as being linked to the Salerno investigation.
Cioffi, defended by the lawyer Saverio Bell, with twenty years of experience serving the operational unit of the Carabinieri of Castello di Cisterna, is registered in the register of suspects since 2018 in relation to Vassallo's death but, when questioned by the prosecutors of the Salerno Public Prosecutor's Office, he had availed himself of the right to remain silent. Cioffi was subsequently involved in events relating to his alleged connection with the Camorra clan Sautto-Ciccarelli, recently receiving a 15-year prison sentence for external involvement in international drug trafficking
Soldiers from the Violent Crimes unit of the Special Operations Group of Rome and the anti-crime section of Salerno have in fact carried out the searches, as part of the investigations on the death of Angelo Vassallo.
In the phase immediately following the murder of Angelo Vassallo, a series of investigative activities were carried out which had the effect of “direct investigations towards individuals who later turned out to be completely unrelated to the criminal episode”.
This is what we read in a note from the Salerno Public Prosecutor's Office which reports the execution of a search warrant against 9 people investigated in various capacities for murder and criminal association aimed at drug trafficking.
The investigations of the Salerno DDA also focused on the performance and real purposes of these investigative activities, carried out “in the phase immediately following the commission of the crime, in the absence of delegation by this Public Prosecutor's Office competent for ascertaining the facts”.
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Article published on 28 July 2022 - 13:10
